They didn't have the space shuttle in the 19thC, TBMcG, they had its forerunner, the space suttle, accurately named by PaulB. The suttle was steam powered, named after its virtually forgotten British inventor, Theodore Blumkvest Suttle, son of a Northumbrian farmer's daughter and Swedish sea captain, who created his steam suttle following much experimentation on the Northumbrian moors. One experiment had a major disaster occur when Suttle's brother-in-law, James Netherwitton, accidentally tied himself to the steam injector of Suttle's latest experimental engines as a result of getting his braces tangled. The extra pressure caused by the tangled braces effectively supercharged the steam injection, providing more thrust. The experimental engine, with Netherwitton attached excerted such force it broke free from it's mountings and shot skyward. It landed in a peatbog a few miles away, with Netherwitton still attached. Sadly Netherwitton did not survive and his body was covered in ice, leading Suttle to realise that the height attained by his suttle was far greater than any previous altitude by any man-made object launched from the ground. Suttle was so remorseful of what happened to his brother-in-law, yet so inspired, that he decided Netherwitton's death should not be in vain. Hence his subsequent frenzied development of a working space suttle, with the first being named 'James Netherwitton' in honour of his deceased relative.